Category Archives: Burlesque

May 13

Hades is the Drama: “Orpheus in the Overworld”

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Eurydice and Orpheus. Photo by Erin Solomon.

Presented by Fresh Ink Theatre 
By Dante Gonzalez
Directed by Shira Helena Gitlin
Composer/Music Director – Abacus Dean-Polacheckan
Dramaturgy by AJ Helm
Fight and Intimacy Coordinator – Kayleigh Kane
Lighting Designer – Z Weber 
Costume Design by  Mikayla Reid 
Production Stage Management by Micaela Slotin 
Assistant Stage Manager – Katelyn Paddock
Featuring: Elijah Brown, Isabel Ginsberg, Lucy Bertolet, Kulfi Jaan, Matthew Suchecki, Rebekah Brunson

April 27 – May 11, 2024 
Boston Center for the Arts 
539 Tremont St.
Boston, MA 02116

Critique by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON, Mass. — Fresh Ink’s Orpheus in the Overworld asks what if the Greek gods’ wills were as free as humanity’s? Dante Gonzalez reimagines the “Orpheus and Euridice” myth as a queer as the day is long burlesque with music and dance. It is for the queer community yet can be enjoyed by anyone. Continue reading →

Oct 30

Frights for Our Times: “Cirque of the Dead”

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Presented by Boston Circus Guild
Directed by Eileen Little
Creative Production and Costume Design by Ellen Waylonis
Script by Tim Ellis
Stage management by Zahra Garrett and Micaela Slotin
Lighting design by Brittany Trymbulak
Featuring Alex Jackson, Alex Oliva, Caroline Wright, Ellen Waylonis, Judith Ngari, Morgan Oldham, Rachel Barringer, Roger May, Tim Ellis

October 27 – October 31
Arts at the Armory
191 Highland Ave
Somerville MA, 02143

Review by Maegon Bergeron-Clearwood

SOMERVILLE, Mass. — There’s something about this show, I thought to myself, partway through the first act of Cirque of the Dead, that feels distinctly millennial. It wasn’t just the jokes about podcasting and politics – beneath every clever quip and gravity-defying flip, there was a vague existential dread lingering beneath the surface.

Sure enough, the true villain of Boston Circus Guild’s Halloween saga is not a demon that needs to be ritualistically trapped inside the vessel of a Barbie doll, but instead the crushing feeling of powerlessness that defines being a young-ish adult in 2023. And our greatest strength in this time of despair, it turns out, is teamwork (and, of course, Taylor Swift). Continue reading →

Oct 16

Everything And More; or, Why My Ex is Straight Now: “The Rocky Horror Show”

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Richard O’Brien’s THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW / MOONBOX PRODUCTIONS 2021
Photography: Molly Shoemaker

Presented by Moonbox Productions
Music, lyrics and book by Richard O’Brien
Directed by David Lucey
Music Directed by Mindy Cimini
Choreography by Daniel Forest Sullivan
Dramaturgy by Allison Olivia Choat

October 16 – 31, 2021
Oct. 23 & 24 @ 7PM (ASL Interpreted Performance)
Fri 10/29 8pm (Audio Described Performance)
“The Lab” 
25 Brattle Street
Cambridge MA 02138
Moonbox on Facebook

Please note: Masks and either Proof of Vaccination/Negative PCR Covid Test Results (within 72 hours) are REQUIRED for entry. Thank you for helping us keep everyone safe!

Tickets are General Admission with Pay-What-You-Can* Seating available at the box office prior to each performance.

Content warning: Language, SEXual content, and fabulous drag queens across the gender spectrum

Review by Kitty Drexel

Cambridge, MA — The Rocky Horror Show at The Lab in Harvard Square is everything Rocky Horror could be during these COVID-times and more. Its energy is electric. The cast is damn brilliant. The band is brilliant. Every single person involved in the preview on Friday night knows how to get down (and get back up again). 

Moonbox’s The Rocky Horror Show will cure what ails you – removing the cause but not the symptom. The Lab is awash in bisexual lighting when you enter; we were all lit up in pinks, purple and subtle blues. Gobos twirled above our heads as we sat in rows facing the audience. OMGs, it was so much fun!  Continue reading →

Oct 30

“Cirque of the Dead” Review 2018: Damned Good Time

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Presented by Boston Circus Guild
Directed by Joseph C. Walsh

October 19 – October 31, 2017
The Oberon
2 Arrow Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Cirque of the Dead on Facebook

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Cambridge, MA) A possessed contortionist, a painting that springs to life to ensnare its painter, a clan of vampires, and a burlesque zombie who strangely (and seductively?) tears off and eats their own skin during their aerial act. Yes, it is Halloween for the Boston Circus Guild. This year, they successfully walk the line between disturbing and beguiling. The show is fragmented into circus acts, yes, but the pieces cohere into a complete (if possessed) picture. Continue reading →

May 22

Batman Burlesque Brings Out the Brave and the Bold

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Presented by The Slaughterhouse Society

May 20 – May 25, 2018
The Oberon
2 Arrow Street
Cambridge, MA
The Slaughterhouse Society on Facebook

Review by Gillian Daniels

CONTENT WARNING: Psychosexual camp with some abuse and violence for good measure.

(Cambridge, MA) Maybe it’s the number of expertly dressed femme fatales and smart suited gentleman villains in the rogue gallery. Maybe it’s just the spandex. All the same, Batman’s unique blended history of pulp, humor, and darkness puts it at the same cross-section of camp and psychosexual horror in which Boston’s happily weird burlesque scene specializes. The Slaughterhouse Society makes sure burlesque and Batman are a match made in vaudeville variety show heaven. Continue reading →

Oct 24

Malicious Intent to Thrill: CIRQUE OF THE DEAD

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Presented by Boston Circus Guild
Directed by Creature aka Karin Webb

October 26 – October 31, 2017
The Oberon
2 Arrow Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Cirque of the Dead on Facebook

Review by Gillian Daniels

CONTENT WARNING: Gory, sexy, bloody, violent, and meant to thrill.

(Cambridge, MA) Local comedian and artist Wes Hazzard is the MC and game master for an evening of aerial stunts and scantily clad performances. In between explicit clips from horror films and faux murders, Hazzard charms the audience with jokes and 1990’s references. He, and the ska-rythums of the fantastic Emperor Norton’s Stationary Marching Band, grounds the twisted, dark menagerie in charisma. Continue reading →

Oct 24

Naughty Nighttime Jaunts: “The Wrathskellar Tales”

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14237673_1197699330251209_1253917380444914164_n-1Produced by Boston BeauTease

October 20 – October 31, 2016
The Wrathskellar
288A Green Street (Lower Level)
Cambridge, MA
Boston BeauTease on Facebook

Review by Danielle Rosvally

(Cambridge, MA) Immersive, site-specific theatre is notoriously difficult to execute.  It is complicated to envision, a nightmare to rehearse, precarious to time, and overwhelming to build.  Audiences familiar with Punchdrunk’s Sleep no More will understand just how many details go into the completion of a successful immersive theatre project.  The Wrathskellar Tales is surprisingly thorough and impressively complete in its scope. Continue reading →

Oct 24

Corpsed: “Cirque of the Dead”

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Presented by The Boston Circus Guild
Script written by Tim Ellis, Ricky Hawkins, and Jeremy Warren
Circus direction by Michael “Mooch” Mucciolo
Choreography of finale by Ellen Waylonis
Band lead by eHawk
Online Program for More Credits

October 21 – 26, 2016
The Oberon
2 Arrow Street, Cambridge MA
Boston Circus Guild on Facebook

This show is 18+ only, due to graphic / disturbing content. Strobe lights are used in this production.

Review by Danielle Rosvally

(Cambridge, MA) Few things are as fun as a circus show, except perhaps a Halloween-themed circus show with zany scientists, colorful cohorts of demons, a jammin’ band, and a mid-show filked-up sing-a-long.  Cirque of the Dead is back for its third year at Club Oberon and it’s ready to wow you.  This thoroughly entertaining evening has your usual thrills, not terribly many chills, and a few non-lethal spills. Continue reading →

Jun 28

Spider Cult’s Tangled Webs of B-Movie Burlesque Pastiche

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The Sweethearts via their website www.theslaughterhousesweethearts.com/

The Sweethearts, photo via their website www.theslaughterhousesweethearts.com/

Presented by Jade Sylvan and Fem Bones
Starring the Slaughterhouse Sweethearts
Created by Jade Sylvan (playwright & producer) Fem Bones (creator, director, & choreographer), Catherine Capozzi (composer, guitarist, & band leader)

June 24 at 6:30PM, 10PM
June 26 at 5PM, 8:30PM
The Oberon
Cambridge, MA
Spider Cult: The Musical Facebook Page
Spider Cult: The Musical Soundtrack

By Gillian Daniels

(Cambridge, MA) Spider Cult: The Musical is deep fried pulp, beer-battered in burlesque and costume blood. This is a certain kind of creepy, specifically a Boston kind, certainly my kind. The choreographed fight scenes and blood shed are as enthusiastic as the stripping. While the plot didn’t need to be anything other than be a skeleton on which one could hang a few themed, stylish burlesque routines, Jade Sylvan and Fem Bones gives us violence, pathos, and insight into human relationships—a many-legged beast of a story. Continue reading →

Jun 23

By the time you notice her, you’re already caught in the web: “Spider Cult the Musical”

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13227041_1709956299255837_8492057768646383105_nScripted and Produced by Jade Sylvan
Created, Directed, Choreographed and Produced by Fem Bones
Music by Catherine Capozzi

June 24 6:30 pm and 10:30 pm
June 26 5 pm and 8:30 pm
Club Oberon
Cambridge, MA
Spider Cult on Facebook

Review by Noelani Kamelamela

(Cambridge, MA) Back in 2012, a Kickstarter campaign funded quite a bit of Fem Bones’ Revenge of the Battle Robot Nuns, a sci-fantastical burlesque show birthed by the Slaughterhouse Sweethearts, possibly New England’s only horror burlesque troupe.  Spider Cult: The Musical is a spin-off set in the same universe and  it retains quite a lot of the slashes of the macabre and deviant sexuality that made Revenge so memorable. Initially, Jade Sylvan pitched Scout’s story to Fem Bones as a spin-off movie after seeing Revenge.  Jade was enamoured of Revenge because the action reminded them of discovering weirdness and sexuality for the first time as a queer individual.  Instead of creating a movie, Jade banged out a script for a live show which gets translated by the indomitable Fem Bones and the Slaughterhouse Sweeties with special guests onto the Oberon stage this Friday and Sunday for one weekend only.   Fans and other supporters of fringe theatre stepped up via Kickstarter yet again to fund the first reading as well as the creation of the show. Continue reading →